Ruckedtobits wrote:Beaten 19-5 by Canada but even the Sky commentatory team acknowledged that they were mauled by the English Ref Richard Haughton who not just gave then nothing but was totally biased against them including a very first movement YC against Shane Daly trying to intercept a high lobbed pass.

Nothing went right at all against Canada. And in a sport of such fine margins, that can be the difference between winning by two scores and losing by two scores. They just never got going at all, with a few errors and some very harsh ref calls.

Fiji are pretty hard to live with, so powerful and skilful and technically sound. But two top 8 finishes as an invitational side is very impressive

paddyor wrote:So what do we have to do to become more than invitational side?

We had to do the business in Hong Kong and were beaten in the last 30 secs by Japan. Somebody suggested that a top 4 finish in S Francisco in the World Cup event will give us entry but I think its a points race in World Series and were now in 15th place behind Wales having made huge progress in last two months.

paddyor wrote:So what do we have to do to become more than invitational side?

We had to do the business in Hong Kong and were beaten in the last 30 secs by Japan. Somebody suggested that a top 4 finish in S Francisco in the World Cup event will give us entry but I think its a points race in World Series and were now in 15th place behind Wales having made huge progress in last two months.

Isn't it just the same winner-takes-all Hong Kong qualifier next time round that'll determine who gets promoted? Ireland will have to contend with the likes of Germany and the relegated Russians

Two terrific results from Mens and Womens Sevens in Marcousis (France) today. The Men beat England in s/f and previously Spain before hammering Germany in Final. The Women beat England 39-7 in the Bronze Medal game on Saturday night in a Tournament won by France.

These games are on European Sevens series prior to Sevens World Cup in San Francisco starting on July 20th.

Great performance by Mens team short of a couple of their speedsters.

Ireland beating England in Mens and Womens Sevens on one weekend should be headlines

Ruckedtobits wrote:Ireland beating England in Mens and Womens Sevens on one weekend should be headlines

Well, not really.England use it as a development series and their women's team has been a shambles this season.

Biggest test was v Germany in the final as that's who they will be competing with for qualification for the world series next year (along with Russia who were relegated this year). In that sense it was job well done.Ireland are progressing quite nicely. Assuming they qualify for Hong Kong it will be a 3 way shoot out between them, Germany and Russia for qualification.

England were using this for serious prep work alright. During the group stage the coach was taking players off and not replacing them to practice situations where his team might have to cope with yellow cards

Unfortunately the draw for the world cup isn't kind. There are no pools so the bottom ranked 16 teams that have qualified play a "qualifying round." The winners then go into the first round proper where it is a straight knock out until the final. Ireland have Chile (which they should win) then SA (which they shouldn't). But then, anything is possible.

Realistically goal for next season has to be qualification for the Series and then Olympics in 2020.

Quite excited for this, even if we're likely to face RSA in the last 16 (if we beat Chile first). Is Mark Roche injured or dropped? He's been a mainstay in the team, has a nice low centre of gravity and is one of the few Sevens players I've seen who consistently knocks over drop goal conversions from the touchline.

"This is breathless stuff.....it's on again. Contepomi out to Hickie,D'Arcy,Hickie.......................HICKIE FOR THE CORNER! THAT IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!